3i8 MY MEMOIRS

the General Staff, the Minister of War, the Chief of the Admiralty Staff, and I were kept away from Berlin during the succeeding days, the whole business was monopolized by the Chancellor, who, having no experience himself of the great European world, was unable to estimate correctly the value of his collaborators in. the Foreign Office.

The Chancellor at any rate did not write to me for advice.

The events of July, and particularly Germany's part in them, are now so completely exposed by a series of partly official publications, that it does not seem to me to be in Germany's interests any longer for me to conceal my opinion.

After the experiences of the world-war the question might be raised whether the German nation ought not to have come to an agreement in time with the neighbours and heirs of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy as to their partition. But if the opposite policy was pursued, which was in keeping with a sense of loyalty and with our historical development, and if the integrity and status of the Hapsburg monarchy as an ally was maintained, then the Chancellor was right when he considered that sufficient satisfaction must be given by Serbia to Austria. For it was only by this means that Austria could once more be made a useful member of the Triple Alliance, and her internal decay perhaps stopped. The mistake made in Berlin and Vienna only began with the treatment of the whole affair. In spite of Count Tisza's warnings, Bethmann and Berchtold